Our Response to the Men’s Health Strategy 2025 

The For Baby’s Sake Trust welcomes the publication of England’s first Men’s Health Strategy. We’re thrilled to see such strong recognition of the need to support parents during the perinatal period, and to address the drivers and impacts of domestic abuse. These areas are central to our work with parents, babies and families. 

We particularly welcome the strategy’s commitments in relation to domestic abuse, exploring what support is needed for men who experience abuse and those who use abusive behaviours. The strategy commits to a new mandatory NHS-wide safeguarding training programme from 2026 covering all aspects of domestic abuse, to strengthen how health services support adult and child victims. It also prioritises improving understanding of why pregnancy and the postnatal period carry higher risks for domestic abuse and evaluating early-intervention approaches for those beginning to show harmful behaviours. Additionally, it promises a national framework to help local areas create neighbourhood health plans and provide tailored, joined-up support, making it easier for victims, survivors, and people worried about their own behaviour to access integrated services, with no ‘wrong front door’. 

We are also pleased to see an explicit focus on the perinatal period as a time of heightened risk, as well as a crucial intervention opportunity. The strategy commits to “improving our understanding of why pregnancy and the time after birth can be a period of heightened risk for domestic abuse and evaluating existing interventions for those disclosing early harmful behaviours to health professionals”. This reflects extensive evidence that domestic abuse can begin or intensify during pregnancy, and that early, trauma-informed intervention with both parents is crucial. 

We also support the commitment to a joined-up, whole-system response, as outlined through the intention to “make it easier for victims, survivors and those with concerns about their own behaviour in relationships to access support… ensuring that there is no ‘wrong front door’ into the system”. This mirrors our own programme model, which provides safe, separate but coordinated support to both parents. 

In addition, we welcome the strategy’s focus on fostering strong social, community and family networks, which highlights the unique pressures fathers experience, particularly in the perinatal period. The strategy notes that “Fatherhood sits at the intersection of health, employment and family policy… a critical transition point where many men may require additional health and wellbeing support, and an opportunity to engage men in their own health”. It further recognises that “Pre-conception, pregnancy and childbirth can be an anxious time… the transition to fatherhood can be a stressful and isolating experience” and that fathers may turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms or feel ignored within services, as evidenced further by our recent YouGov survey. 

Importantly for our mission to put babies’ emotional safety and parent-infant relationships at the centre, the strategy acknowledges that “Fathers’ poor mental health… can impact their attachment and bond with their baby, which in turn can impact their child’s outcomes”. This recognition of the relational impact between fathers’ wellbeing and babies’ development is essential for shaping effective policy and commissioning. We also welcome the government’s commitments in this section to strengthen father-inclusive practice, including investment in Family Hubs, support for flexible working, and specific efforts to ensure fathers are included in service design and delivery. These are promising steps towards tackling the barriers many fathers face in seeking help and engaging with services. 

The For Baby’s Sake Trust encourages government and partners to build on these commitments by: 

1. Investing in whole-family, trauma-informed interventions that support both parents safely during pregnancy and early parenthood to break cycles of domestic abuse and give their babies the best start in life.
2. Strengthening consistent pathways between maternity services, mental healthservicesand specialist domestic abuse support. 
3. Ensuring perinatal services are designed to include fathers as standard, with clear guidance on engaging those using harmful behaviours safely and appropriately.
4. Embedding learning from the new safeguarding programme into frontline practice, with a particular emphasis on babies’ emotional safety and early child development.

We look forward to working with government, local authorities, commissioners and partners to support delivery of the strategy. By prioritising early intervention, trauma-informed support and whole-family approaches, we can significantly improve outcomes for babies, children and parents, and give every child the best start in life.